The Russia House

Of all the John le Carr� novels to be brought to the big screen, "The Russia House" might be the most piquantly satirical. Its subversive jokiness lurks underneath a sheen of romance and the trappings of a spy story, but there's no mistaking how the novelist's pointy tongue is lodged painfully deep in his cheek.

Sean Connery stars in the 1990 filmic adaptation of the novel, playing the part of an unhappy, heavily drinking publisher named Barley. The wind that shakes this particular Barley is named Katya, rather than Mariah; she's a Russian divorcee with two young children, and an idealist willing to place herself in harm's way for what she believes is the good of her country.

Katya and Barley are brought together by British Intelligence after Katya entrusts a manuscript to Barley's rival publisher at a book fair. This is no ordinary manuscript: While parts of it look like the ravings of a deranged peacenik, much of its bulk consists of detailed and highly accurate information regarding the state of the Soviet Union's ICBMs and other components of its cold war arsenal. The gist of it is that Russia has not real defensive or offensive capabilities; their hardware is for show, the technical expertise behind it all far from competent.

If this is true, the West needs to know about it -- but at the same time, parts of the West would rather not know about it, because (as a CIA honcho played by Roy Scheider maintains) defense contracts are big business, and it's hard to support massive, economy-driving expenditures once you've admitted that you're essentially the only game in town.

If the CIA's intentions seem murky, so too are Barley's... once he falls in love with Katya, that is. Delicately playing a game in which he masters the elements of spy craft while pursuing his growing affection for Katya, Barley slowly but fearlessly begins to rearrange the pieces of the game to suit himself.

The film features some other big names, including directors Klaus Maria Brandauer (as the author of the manuscript in question) and Ken Russell (as a half-unhinged member of British intelligence).

It's all good fun -- especially Connery and Pfeiffer's performances -- and the film's extensive use of location work in Russia works a treat, thanks to cinematographer Ian Baker's expert lensing. (Julie Kirgo's liner notes celebrate that fact that "The Russia House" was "the first Western production to be filmed substantially in the Soviet union," and the location work lends the film an immediacy and credence it might otherwise lack.

This Twilight Time release offers an isolated score track of Jerry Goldsmith's celebrated music for the film (featuring the work of saxophonist Brandon Marsalis), the original theatrical trailer, and Kirgo's always-elucidating liner notes.

"The Russia House"
Blu-ray
$29.95
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/russia-house-the-blu-ray